Matt Dillon Returns, Public Debt Passes $10 billion, Battambang Sake Shines

Jul 14, 2023

BIG BROTHER: The CPP’s Cyber War Room is in full battle mode ahead of the July 23 national elections, and everyone’s being watched. The online police force has become symbolic of global autocrats’ control of social media.
BALLOT FAIL: Democracy advocates are throwing heavy shade on upcoming elections. Freedom House flunked the vote with an F- and the U.N. demanded the immediate release of Theary Seng.
SAKE BOMB: Japanese deminers inspired a Battambang salaryman to take up sake brewing. A decade later, Sora Khmer is winning global acclaim for its locally infused potions.

THE LEDE

Long Trail

The Strongman urged President Joe Biden to rethink a decision to give cluster bombs to Ukraine, citing the Kingdom’s painstaking battle with deadly war remnants.

Hun Sen, in rare agreement with humanitarian groups, said the real victims would be Ukrainians, and damage from the munitions could last more than 100 years. Ukrainian deminers visited Cambodia in January to learn from the country’s decades of bitter experience.

Cambodia has spent more than $260 million clearing leftover ordnance. The country expects to be mine-free in 2025, nearly 30 years after hostilities officially ceased in 1998.

Political Score

The government dismissed a scathing election review from Freedom House scoring the July 23 ballot a dismal 29 points out of 100.

The election campaign has been exceedingly hard on the opposition. The U.N. on Wednesday called for the immediate release of Theary Seng, the Cambodian-American lawyer who has been “arbitrarily detained” since June 2022. Police this week also raided the home of a Pailin opposition leader, and Thai authorities arrested a Candlelight Party member for anti-CPP Facebook posts.

Hun Sen warned that activists who attracted international attention would never be “tolerated or pardoned.” Theary Seng has five years of a six-year sentence left to serve.

Fashion Folly

A vast number of illegally cut trees wind up as firewood, according to a Mongabay investigation, which uncovered a thriving industry of rural loggers supplying the Kingdom’s garment industry.

Researchers estimate about 30% of Cambodia’s 1,200 garment factories use forest wood to boil water and power generators, yet a full accounting is next to impossible because the networks operate in a legal gray area.

Areas around the Aural Wildlife Sanctuary in Kampong Speu province are already logged out and the middlemen who buy from locals and sell to factories have been forced into new areas. Experts say the government and global fashion brands must act fast, before the trees are gone.

TALKING POINTS

Battle Ready

The CPP’s Cyber War Room is back in action, spreading misinformation and attacking critics ahead of national elections on July 23. In previous years, the ruling party eased up after the vote. This time, however, independent media, which has suffered shutdowns and abuse in the election runup, appears down for the count.

Outsider Returns

For a certain generation of Phnom Penh expats, there is no more essential film than 2002's "City of Ghosts," which was not only a who's who of local celebrities but starred Hollywood A-listers as well. This week, the film's director and leading man, Matt Dillon, was back in town for a film workshop and screening. Local nostalgia doesn't get much better.

High Note

Cambodia’s public debt reached a record $10.3 billion in the first quarter, up nearly 5% over the same period last year — and about 40% is owed to China. The Kingdom is forecast to owe more than $11 billion by year’s end, or about 26% of GDP. The Finance Ministry called the debt level “low risk.”

Social Justice

Snapkyu, the homegrown social-media platform, is poised for growth after the high-profile clash between Hun Sen and Facebook, which resulted in the U.S. tech titan being barred from government contracts. Snapkyu, an English-language app with the slogan “Snap, Queue and Share,” currently has about 200,000 users.

Cuffed Up

The Ministry of Interior banned money lenders from using identity cards as collateral and warned of online loan scams after a rash of distraught victims posted complaints on social media. Authorities this week arrested three illegal lending agents and promised more arrests would follow.

Rubbish Tip

A local non-profit is turning Tonle Sap-area schools into recycling hubs in an effort to stem the flow of plastic into the Kingdom’s beloved and life-bringing lake. Students bring plastic waste to the classrooms, where it is sold to recyclers.

Illegal Turn

Police discovered 103 kilograms of methamphetamine in a crashed SUV and the search is on for suspects. Authorities have so far this year confiscated nearly 850 kilograms of illegal drugs and arrested more than 7,400 suspects — and it’s only mid-July.

Smooth Sip

Sora Khmer, a brand of sake brewed in Battambang province, is tipped to win the prestigious President Award at this year’s Kura Master competition in France. The sake, inspired by Japanese deminers, won top prizes with its White Cassava Sake and Banana Shochu varieties, giving the brand and its distillers a chance at the highest award, which will be given in August.

BACKPAGES: From the Cambodia Daily Vault

Once Upon A War

July 11, 2003
Through a break in the clouds, plumes of black smoke stretched skyward from where the napalm had spread a molten red, oxygen-sucking inferno over the Cambodian village several hundred meters below.

NEC Issues Ultimatum to Media Outlets

July 9, 2003
A harsh warning from the National Election Committee largely neutered the nation’s airwaves Wednesday as officials monitored radio broadcasts and weighed possible punishments.

Prince: 1997 Victors Betrayed People’s Will

July 7, 2003
The 1997 factional fighting that ended Funcinpec’s hold on the post of prime minister also halted multiparty politics in Cambodia, Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh said on Sunday, the sixth anniversary of the bloody July 5 and July 6 street fighting.

Gov’t Threatens to Shut Down Beehive Radio

July 7, 2003
The Ministry of Information threatened to shut down a radio station that has begun airing news from Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, and thousands of workers attended an open debate between Funcinpec and Sam Rainsy Party officials in Phnom Penh on Sunday.

The Weekly Dispatch

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